Personal carers' leave is leave an employee can take to care for a family member who is sick. If an employee takes personal carers' leave she/he must be responsible for the care of the person who is sick. This type of leave is paid leave.

Bereavement leave is leave that an employee can take when a family member dies. Some industrial awards require an employee to attend the funeral or impose other conditions on taking this leave. Bereavement leave is also sometimes called compassionate leave. This type of leave is paid leave.

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The Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales handed down a decision in the Family Provisions Case 2005. The decision is related to caring and parental leave rights and responsibilities and affects employers and employees working under state awards. The new standards have applied from 19 December 2005.

The decision broadens the reasons for use of sick leave for caring responsibilities. They now include occasions where an employee has to care for a family or household member due to an unexpected emergency. This is in addition to existing arrangements that allow employees to use their paid sick leave in order to provide care to a family or household member who is ill. The use of sick leave for caring purposes remains uncapped and the description of the relationships for which carers leave is available, has not changed.

The decision also allows an employee to elect and, with the agreement of the employer, to take their annual holidays up to two years after the day they became due. It also increases the number of single annual leave days that may be taken per year for family-related purposes from five to ten days.

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Casual employees are entitled to be absent from work because of the death in Australia of a person with whom they had a relationship of the type defined in the personal/carers leave clause of their award. The period of the absence is by agreement and is unpaid. If agreement cannot be reached the casual worker is entitled to be absent for up to 48 hours (two days). Subject to appropriate evidence, casuals can be absent from work in order to care for a relevant person who is ill, has given birth to a child or because of some unexpected emergency. The period of the absence is by agreement and is unpaid. Again, if agreement cannot be reached the casual worker is entitled to be absent for up to 48 hours (two days).

Employers must not fail to re-engage a casual employee because they have been absent for these reasons.

Personal carers' leave and bereavement leave are available to all employees covered by NSW awards. There are a few exceptions and some awards have slightly different entitlements. Many enterprise agreements also provide for these types of leave.

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Both types of leave may be taken for a family member who is the employee's:

• spouse, de facto spouse or same sex partner
• child, including adopted, foster, ex-nuptial or step child
• parent, including foster parent or legal guardian
• grandparent, grandchild or sibling

An employee may also take leave for the children, parents, grandparents or siblings or their spouse or defacto spouse, or any other relative who is a member of the employee's household.

Personal carers' leave allows employees to use all of their current and accrued sick leave to care for the sick family member.

The bereavement leave entitlement is a minimum of two days. Some awards provide for 3 or more days and may also impose other conditions on taking leave. Bereavement leave may also be taken in conjunction with other personal carers' leave with the agreement of an employer.

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For personal carers' leave, an employer can require an employee to establish that a family member was sick and needed care. A medical certificate or statutory declaration can do this.

For bereavement leave, evidence may also be required. Relevant awards set out these requirements.

An employee and employer can agree to use other leave entitlements to meet other family obligations. This can include:

• using annual leave in single day periods or part of single days
• taking time off in lieu of overtime
• working make-up time
• accruing rostered days off or taking them in part day amounts.

Flexible use of these leave entitlements can be for any purpose and not just to care for a sick family member.